A call to traffic departments

The percentage of accidents caused by speed-limit violators has increased dramatically in the past few years. This rate is growing although the number of cars that ply the roads is also growing, not leaving much space for speeding.

Speeding is a danger not only for the driver and his/her vehicle but also everything surrounding the vehicle, be it pedestrians, other cars or private and public property. And this is because the likelihood of an accident occurring as a result of speeding is very high. This also leads to additional jams for drivers, as the flow of traffic is affected.

Violators

In an attempt to control the number of violators of speed limits the Traffic Departments of the different emirates increased the number of radars.

The radar is usually fixed either permanently in a box or temporarily in a car or left standing free on the ground.

However, the locations of the temporary radars inside the cities are rarely changed and the ones that are placed on the outskirts are almost never changed.

It is interesting to note that the radars here detect only speeding. Whereas some other countries impose fines on violations that could be classified as both speeding and under speeding.

In order to avoid detection by radars, drivers memorise the points at which they are fixed, whether permanently or temporarily, and control their vehicles' speed accordingly. I could illustrate the scene of a typical race driver, as I call them. They go over the speed limit until they observe a radar coming up, then they brake suddenly.

This sudden manoeuvre causes many accidents to take place, on many occasions. It is a pity such violators consider themselves very clever as they do what they desire, which is speeding, and at the same time they avoid getting fined.

Simple solution

I would like to direct the attention of the different traffic departments to a simple solution to this problem.

I propose that they fix radars at calculated distance intervals. As a result of that, drivers would not be able to drive over the limit because the physical distance between each radar point is not sufficient to do so.

Another important thing is that temporary radars should be regularly repositioned in a manner that does not allow drivers to memorise their location.

Finally, I believe that while going over the speed limit causes a lot of accidents, going slower than the speed limit also does the same.

Drivers and pedestrians try to avoid coming close to each other. Likewise I suggest that radars set the minimum speed below which drivers cannot go without paying a fine.

Hanan Esmail Al Sahlawi is an Emirati columnist based in Abu Dhabi.